Oliver Bearman took FIA F2 pole in Baku in a damaged car from Enzo Fittipaldi by 0.012s, with Theo Pourchaire in third.

The start of F2 qualifying in Baku was delayed and not soon before it got going, there was a red flag after PHM Racing Charouz’s Brad Benavides crashed at Turn 1 where Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan and ART’s Victor Martins had a wide moment too.

Once it got going, it was MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger leading with a 1m53.531s lap from Van Amersfoort Racing’s Richard Verschoor and Prema’s Oliver Bearman as Campos Racing’s Kush Maini was fourth and Carlin’s Enzo Fittipaldi in fifth.

There was couple of impeding incidents noted, the first being between Maini and ART’s Theo Pourchaire and the other being Doohan. There was close to a disaster for Hitech GP’s Isack Hadjar after a small clip troubled his suspension and he couldn’t set a lap early on.

The second run saw traffic mayhem as no one wished to give a tow to the driver behind. The incident between Doohan and Verschoor was cleared as Bearman and MP Motorsport’s Jehan Daruvala were noted for driving erratically where the Brit clipped the wall.

But that didn’t deter him from setting the best lap of 1m52.652s on his final attempt to take F2 pole in Baku. He remains under investigation as he headed Fittipaldi by 0.012s. Pourchaire was third from Vesti and Hauger in the Top 5.

Daruvala was sixth from Hitech GP’s Jak Crawford, Martins, Carlin’s Zane Maloney and Verschoor in the Top 10, where the Dutchman took reverse grid pole for Saturday’s sprint race, provisionally.

UPDATE: Following the conclusion of Baku Qualifying, Théo Pourchaire has received a three-place grid penalty for Saturday’s Sprint Race. The ART Grand Prix driver was found to have impeded Kush Maini at Turn 2 during the Qualifying session. The penalty drops the Frenchman from 8th on the Sprint Race grid to 11th. It promotes Enzo Fittipaldi up to eighth, Oliver Bearman to P9 and Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung to P10.

With Bearman only reprimanded for his erratic driving in front of Daruvala and Verschoor, the Brit retained his pole position for the feature F2 race. And he will start ninth in the sprint race courtesy of the penalty to Pourchaire.

 

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